OUR DREAMS DO NOT COME TO TORMENT US with past failures or to revive regret. Our dreams come in service of our health and well-being. Today’s recurring dream will repeat itself until our dreamer takes action toward thriving in her remaining years.

Dear Carolyn,

The dream I am sending you has happened quite a few times. I think the urgency is there because I’m old (66) and time is running out and Paris is symbolic. Until I was 61, I was fairly impoverished, trying to make a living as an artist and never linking up with a patron who had any money. Then I received a modest inheritance which allowed me to relax a little and not worry constantly. The Paris dream mainly occurred before I got the money, but still happens now and then to remind me that I never made it as an artist and haven’t seen much of the world.

The small hotel room is dark and nondescript. I have a sense I’ve arrived in Paris but can’t be sure. Looking out the window, I see no Eiffel Tower, but then I know — it really is Paris, my dream come true! The winter gloom tells me I only have an hour or two to explore before nightfall, and my plane leaves first thing in the morning. So little time to see so much! I glance around frantically for my purse but I haven’t brought one. No luggage, passport or money either. Anxiety rises but I know I must get out of there now and grab what I can before it’s too late. I’ll never have another chance.

Signed, Yearning for Paris

Dear Yearning,

You have a good start on the meaning of your dream, and the background you have provided helps us put the dream in context. It does have a sense of urgency built in by way of the darkening sky of the “winter gloom,” a metaphor for the winter of your life. Added to that are the facts that you have only an hour or two to do and see so much, and your plane is leaving first thing the very next morning. These are common thoughts and anxieties for people entering into the “winter of their years.” It’s natural to make a life review and think to yourself, “I’d better hurry and do as much as I can before I depart!”

When you look around, you don’t see the Eiffel Tower or any other landmark that says you’ve made it to Paris, the artists’ mecca that you aspired to. But your dream makes it clear that you are in a place worthy of exploration and appreciation. Like all of us as we age, Dear Dreamer, you don’t want to spend time regretting what you have not yet done or achieved. Your dream has not come to taunt you. It has come to exhort you: Get out the door and live the life you have remaining!

Sweet Dreams to you!

Carolyn Plath, M.Ed., is a Benicia resident and member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Reach her at sendmeyourdreams@yahoo.com.

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